Fossil Alpinism

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was perhaps the most famous Japanese haiku poet. On my recent trip to Asia I purchased another annotated collectio...

This incredible two minute video shows a couple of alpinists, slack lining in the most stunning setting imaginable. Blew my mind! Skyliners ...

I came across this beautiful time lapse video on the American Alpine Club blog ... it brought back fond memories ... also a bit of sadness t...

This picture of Abby Watkins, is one of the current generation of female alpinists that are profiled in a short essay about women who have b...

NASA has just decided to include the himalayas in this surveillance and research study about the effects of climate change. CLICK HERE TO AC...

At 81 my dad just died of pancreatic cancer. The end came swiftly, and thankfully without pain. It seemed like just a month ago we were out...

A neat little essay about a Cascade mountaineer who delights in planned high altitude bivouacs. (As opposed to the unplanned version that Ma...

It is great to be back. After the red-eye and the drive from Burlington, Lucy and I walked the dogs around the ski hill. Of course, I head...

Lou Dawson and I crossed paths in the 70s doing winter courses for COBS. His website on backcountry skiing is one of the best. CLICK HERE TO...

There is a large gallery a block away from my hotel that features work by Miro, Picasso, and Chagall. In honor of the early start to the wi...

A work in progress, however this first chapter of Skoog's on-line book is a worthwhile read! Note, it is well illustrated with archival...

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

A very successful alumni reunion; this morning I toured the delightful Samsung Art Museum, and now I am boarding my flight to the Bay Area.

As you can see from these tow pictures taken from the center of the city - one from the Palace grounds and the other from the business cente...

Read the first of several blog installments written by noted author Jeremy Bernstein in the New York Review of Books. He has written 2-3 bo...

Lucy and Selden harvesting NCS left-overs.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ JEFF ACHEY'S SHORT ESSAY IN THE RECENT ISSUE OF CLIMBING MAGAZINE.

Yesterday I took a two hour flight to Seoul from Narita. It was a pleasure to fly Japan Airlines ... Great service, large comfortable seats,...

From atop the Tokyo Tower, yesterday you just got the faintest hint of the lower reaches of Mount Fuji ... It was cool but very overcast. I...

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ THE ALEX HONNOLD INTERVIEW IN OUTSIDE MAGAZINE.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO ACCESS A GOOD ARTCLE FROM THE AMERICAN ALPINE INSTITUTE.

There are at least 40 climbs on our crag, with at least 30 that have been done by students. Larry and Dave have broken them into three cat...

With Selden's piggies going off to the slaughterhouse, that can only mean one thing ... Lots of fresh pork in the freezer for when the f...

Enjoy this short video of arguably the best rock climber in the world meeting up with the "New Age" yoga sensation in the northern...

The trailer for the new Teton Gravity Research ski video. Just start the video, and then click the video again to enlarge the screen. ...

One of my favorite short 45 minute aerobic workouts, is to do a 3k lap up and around our ski hill with a stop to do ten laps up "Buried...

Get a close look at what a year at North Country School is like. (For best viewing, start the video and then click on the screen again, so t...

Every so often I visit "Daily Climbing Tips.". This web blog has concrete and down to earth tips and tricks for climbers, as well ...

A picture from our first Denali trip in the mid-1970s. Mark is snapping pictures on the Kahiltna and Mike Brochu is yucking it up. Don who ...

As we will finish in Zermatt I thought I would point out that we will ski right underneath the North Face of the Matterhorn, the most photog...

Yesterday, one of the NCS trips hiked up Giant. With over 3,000' of climbing, and a start at 10 AM, they made good time and got to the ...

The New York Times travel section was devoted to South America, this article has some wonderful ideas of where to buy some high end indigeno...

I am re-reading this wonderful slim volume, EVEREST: THE WEST RIDGE. The cover picture alone is worth the price of the book. What an amazin...

Today was a beautiful day in the Adirondacks, cool and crisp. I joined the NCS students up at the crag for a few laps in my mountain boots ....

Yesterday, just before dinner, I did an easy 4k hike on our perimeter loop, aside from getting a little exercise, the goal was to see how we...

Selden has almost finished clearing the land and making it ready for more pasture for her animals. The peak on the left is Pitchoff and the ...

This is a short trailer for a cultural documentary about skiing in Kashmir. Gulmarg has the highest gondola in the world and there are mile...

It started to pour this afternoon, and so instead of taking students to the crag, we relocated to our indoor climbing wall. Almost all of t...

While climbing in Alaska has it's costs - a long flight, bush pilots, high in-state prices - it has often been a bargain compared to the...

Morning temperatures have dropped into the mid-30s twice this week. Fall is certainly here in the Adirondacks, and no doubt we will see sno...

Flipping through that fascinating book of Himalayan statistics (available as a PDF on-line), I came across this mind numbing graph. The sta...

This famous rock climbing sequence was filmed at Dead Horse Point in Utah. Tom Cruise was on cables which were then digitally removed. Ron K...

THIS COULD BE A POTENTIAL OBJECTIVE FOR MY 60TH BIRTHDAY! (Remember, if you click on the video after it has started, you'll be able to ...

As Larry and I have started a bit of banter - What no Cassin - vis a vis the possibility of a 60th birthday trip, I have started to a bit of...

SO HOW IS YOUR LOG LOOKING?

I have just finished reading the initial 60+ pages of a fantastic book. Simon Thomson's book, "Unjustifiable Risk?: the history of...

Yesterday was a beautiful, crisp, Fall, Adirondack day. With school about to start there was much to do, however I took a few hours off and...

School is about to start and I have been home from the big mountains for a month. So how have my post-Andean days been? I have gained abo...

However, this harness - at 3.4 ounces - seems perfect for ski mountainieering. I am buying the damn thing because I do not want to tote my 1...